On April 2nd 1968, the AUSA (All Undergraduate Student Association) Senate voted 8-6 to allow John Walker, a graduate law student, to run for AUSA office. Chancellor Maurice Mitchell challenged AUSA’s right to elect graduate students to the Undergraduate Senate, citing their failure to seek permission from the DU’s Board of Trustees. Many AUSA officers felt the Chancellor’s actions impeded their right to self-governance, and on April 25th they organized march and sit-in the Registrar’s office. Several hundred students participated in the march and thirty-nine students were arrested by Denver Police and expelled, a decision that was later reduced to suspension. 

Student Protest- Sit-in

Nine unidentified University of Denver students are confronted by two police officers during a 1968 sit-in at the registrar's office. Credit: University of Denver Archives. Photographer unknown. 

 
Student Protesters Sitting in Hallway

University of Denver students standing and sitting in a crowded hallway in University Hall, listening to an unidentified male speaker, during a student demonstration at the University of Denver in 1968. Credit: University of Denver Archives. Photographer unknown.